Azadi Briefing

Welcome to The Azadi Briefing, an RFE/RL newsletter that unpacks the key issues in Afghanistan. To subscribe, click here.

I'm Abubakar Siddique, senior correspondent at RFE/RL's Radio Azadi. Here's what I've been tracking and what I'm keeping an eye on in the days ahead.

The Key Issue

The Taliban confiscated at least 50,000 books from publishing houses and bookshops in the Afghan capital this week.

Publishers and bookstore owners said the extremist group has also banned the sale and publication of more than 100 books. Many of the books were written or translated by Afghan authors in Dari and Pashto and focus specifically on the Taliban.

Atiqullah Azizi, a Taliban official, said the books were banned because they violated “national and Islamic values” or promoted disunity among Afghans.

The move has been criticized by authors and publishers, who said they will incur significant financial losses.

"With such restrictions, the Taliban want to impose their views on people," Mujib Rahimi, an author and former government spokesman whose three books have been banned, told RFE/RL’s Radio Azadi.

Afghan writer, Nazir Ahmad Shahar, said his book, Waziristan: The Last Refuge, which is about the history of the mountainous region in northwestern Pakistan, was also banned.

“The Taliban censors didn’t even read the books and banned them just by looking at the titles,” Shahar told Radio Azadi.

Why It's Important: The Taliban’s ban on and confiscation of books suggests the extremist group is intensifying its censorship drive in Afghanistan.

Since seizing power, the Taliban has imposed severe restrictions on the media and access to information, and increased detentions of reporters, activists, and other critics as part of its brutal crackdown on dissent.

The hard-line Islamists have also overhauled the secular curriculum of elementary schools and built hundreds of madrasahs, or Islamic seminaries, across the country in the past two years.

What's Next: The Taliban is likely to widen its book seizures to other parts of Afghanistan and expand its list of banned books.

The groups appears intent on severely limiting Afghans’ access to alternative forms of information and entrenching its extremist ideology in the country.

What To Keep An Eye On

A Taliban official has announced that the first road linking Afghanistan to neighboring China will be inaugurated soon.

Mohammad Ayub Khalid, the Taliban governor for the northeastern Badakhshan Province, said the 50-kilometer-long road via the Wakhan Corridor will connect his country to China’s western Xinjiang region.

Khalid said the road, which for now is a dirt track, will be “asphalted in the spring,” in comments to the pro-Taliban Hurriyat Radio on January 18.

Khalid did not say if Beijing is helping to fund the project, which was first conceived by the ousted Western-backed Afghan government.

The aim of the initiative is to turn the isolated and strategically located Wakhan Corridor into a transport belt by linking China to Afghanistan and Tajikistan to Pakistan.

Why It's Important: Since its return to power, the Taliban has been keen to attract investments from China.

But the Taliban, which remains unrecognized and sanctioned by the international community, has secured only limited investments from Beijing.

The militants appear to be hoping to convince China that Afghanistan can be a valuable land link to Iran, which has attracted substantial Chinese investments.

That's all from me for now. Don't forget to send me any questions, comments, or tips that you have. You can always reach us at azadi.english@rferl.org

Until next time,

Abubakar Siddique

If you enjoyed this briefing and don't want to miss the next edition, subscribe here. It will be sent to your inbox every Friday.

Welcome to The Azadi Briefing, an RFE/RL newsletter that unpacks the critical issues in Afghanistan. To subscribe, click here.

I'm Abubakar Siddique, senior correspondent at RFE/RL's Radio Azadi. Here's what I've been tracking and what I'm keeping an eye on in the days ahead.

The Key Issue

Thousands of Afghan men and women are flocking to the central passport office in the Afghan capital, Kabul, after the Taliban suspended online applications, forcing people to apply for them in person.

On January 10, videos circulating on social media platforms captured the desperation of Afghans seeking travel documents.

"The crowd was so big that my father lost his warm scarf," said Haseebullah, who arrived around midnight to line up in the freezing temperatures.

"Everyone was miserable," he told Radio Azadi.

Shizer Samim, a university student from the northern Balkh Province, is seeking a passport to study abroad after the Taliban barred women from attending universities in December 2022.

"I applied for a passport a year ago but I still don't have one," she told Radio Azadi.

Since the Taliban returned to power in August 2021, hundreds of thousands of Afghans have attempted to get passports. But the process is marred by corruption, excessive fees, and long delays.

Why It's Important: The eagerness to obtain passports indicates that educated, skilled, and well-off Afghans are voting against the Taliban with their feet by seeking to escape the militants' harsh rule.

Afghanistan's extensive humanitarian and economic crises, coupled with the Taliban's draconian restrictions and bans on education and work for women, have prompted many Afghans to seek a normal life elsewhere.

Hundreds of thousands of Afghans, mostly educated and skilled professionals, government workers, and middle-class entrepreneurs have fled Afghanistan since the Taliban regained power.

Despite the Taliban promising amnesty for former soldiers and government workers, human rights watchdogs have documented extensive reprisal killings, beatings, detentions, and harassment by the hard-line Islamist group.

The Taliban has established a monopoly on power by appointing its members and leaders to government positions, which leaves little incentive for most Afghans to believe in a future under the group.

Last year more than 1 million "undocumented Afghans" were expelled from neighboring Iran and Pakistan, and there were also significant deportations from Turkey.

Those events serve as additional incentives for Afghans to obtain documents before traveling abroad.

What's Next: Without significant improvements in the Taliban's governance and the country's economy, the Afghan exodus will only worsen.

The fading Afghan crisis from the international agenda and the mistreatment of Afghans in neighboring countries ensure that the four-decade cycle of Afghan displacement will continue.

What To Keep An Eye On

A senior Pakistani Islamist politician's visit to Taliban-ruled Afghanistan to revive strained ties between the two neighbors has left many unanswered questions.

Maulana Fazlur Rehman, leader of the Jamiat Ulema Islam-Fazl (JUI-F) party, has spent nearly a week in Kabul to meet with Taliban officials, including its reclusive chief, Mullah Haibatullah Akhundzada, and leaders of Tehrik-e Taliban Pakistan (TTP), otherwise known as the Pakistani Taliban.

He went in an attempt to reduce tensions between erstwhile allies the Taliban and Islamabad over the group's alleged backing for the TTP. Since the Taliban's return to power in Afghanistan, TTP attacks have killed thousands and threaten elections in JUI-F strongholds in northwestern Pakistan.

Rehman had claimed that while he was invited by the Taliban, his trip was sanctioned by Islamabad and the Foreign Ministry briefed him on the state of relations between the two countries.

But on January 11, Pakistani Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Mumtaz Zahra Baloch said Rehman's trip was private and "was not sponsored or advised by the government of Pakistan."

Why It's Important: While Rehman might gain some breathing space from the TTP for his election campaign, his visit is unlikely to improve bilateral ties immediately.

Islamabad remains staunchly opposed to talks with the TTP mediated by the Taliban, which is reluctant to give up on a key ideological and organizational ally.

That's all from me for now. Don't forget to send me any questions, comments, or tips that you have. You can always reach us at azadi.english@rferl.org

Until next time,

Abubakar Siddique

If you enjoyed this briefing and don't want to miss the next edition, subscribe here. It will be sent to your inbox every Friday.